D in Dynamo stands for disappointed

The Dynamo dropped tremendous points on Wednesday night. They were a man up for most of the night. They were a goal up at halftime and controlled possession at an amazing pace. Yet, they somehow needed a late goal to escape with a draw.

Je-Vaughn Watson scored his first MLS goal to give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead. Yet, he committed a costly foul in the box to give the Columbus Crew their second penalty. For at least the second time this year, Watson’s lazy defending cost the Dynamo a goal. If he weren’t caught ball watching, he likely wouldn’t have kicked a Crew player in the stomach for the penalty.

The Dynamo’s playoff hopes aren’t dead, but, they would have received a tremendous boost if they had taken care of business against a Columbus team that was there for the picking.

“Disappointed, very disappointed,” Dominic Kinnear said afterward.

Brad Davis concurred.

“We’re very disappointed,” Davis said. “We clawed ourselves back in there, but giving up two penalties is kind of hard to swallow. We’ve got to learn how to not get in these positions, to not do this to ourselves. On the other side of things I think we had one there that was an absolute clear handball there at the end for us that he didn’t call.

“It’s kind of weird the way things are falling for us, but the only thing we can do is keep plugging away. We still have five games left, so no matter how bad things are we’re not out of it so we’ve got to keep fighting away. It doesn’t matter how you get into the playoffs, as long as you get in anything can happen. ”

Watson seems like a very gifted player, but quite simply I wonder if he has the mental capacity to contribute in Major League Soccer. It breaks my heart to write that; it really does. In 15 years of covering professional sports I don’t think I’ve ever questioned a guy’s intelligence in print, and trust me I covered a few dummies in Major League Baseball.

The Dynamo have five games left, and they need to start picking up some points quickly again. Since their five-game unbeaten streak, they have picked up one point out of nine possible points in the last three games. They lost to a miserable Vancouver club, were embarrassed by a great Sporting Kansas City club and were fortunate to get a late draw against a wounded Columbus team. All those games were on the road.

The Dynamo are too talented to be winless on the road. There’s a tremendous problem there, and they must figure out a way to fix it.

Even more disappointing, you’d be hard pressed to find more than three Dynamo defeats on the road when the club didn’t help the opposition. The Dynamo haven’t been defeated as much as they’ve beaten themselves.

That’s on the players, not the coaching staff. Sooner or later, Watson must realize that he’s not in Jamaica anymore. He needs to understand that he must play all 90 minutes and defend. If Brian Ching, the club’s all-time leading scorer, fights his behind off to defend, then maybe Watson should realize it’s a good idea for him to defend too.

Unfortunately for the Dynamo, on the second penalty, there was no D in Dynamo. Because of Watson’s blunder, there was plenty of D in disappointment.